- What is the benefit of this versus buying a house for myself?

I think your best bet for seller finance is fisbo's or distressed sales.

Your best bet is to find out the auction date and go.   

It sounds you may be talking about SFH versus a duplex and I'll just say I can't make a SFH cash flow but all of my duplex's do. 

There are many ways to get involved with real estate so doing your homework and determining if your an active versus passive investor is also a good place to start.

They don't just jump up and grab you, but it's a fair bet that active investors in your area know people with retirement accounts who are looking for safer investments and less volatility than the stock market.Network with other investors.

If they only post the registered agents info your best bet would be a skip tracer.

For example,My goal is 8% versus 4%, currently Im still looking for properties in certain states such as Florida which brings 8% cap rate. make right decision is always hard, god luck man.

I believe the casinos are not really attracting a lot of attention anymore, so that probably means less employment in that area versus the last 5-10 years.

The property has to be your primary residence for 2 of the last 5 years to get a section 121 exclusion on capital gains of $250K/$500K (single/married) But I bet he doesn't want to live there for the next 2 years.